Month: February 2014

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Expecting What Is Deserved

February 10, 2014 jcladyluv

Today is going to be my day. This year is going to be my year. No really I mean it this time. I have said that with the passing of each New Year. That it was going to be my year. For the couple of years it had turned out not to be my year. While I sat back and wondered why the year didn’t turn out how I imagined it would I was completely missing the bigger picture. Now granted I know that last year wasn’t my year because I just threw in the towel but that’s no excuse either.

Watching Joel Osteen yesterday talk about expectancy and true, unwaivering faith in the things that God can bestow upon our lives it hit me. Every time I claimed that my day was going to be a good one and every year when I proclaimed it would be my year, I didn’t really believe what I was saying. I wanted to believe it was true but I was so full of despair and doubt that I only halfway believed it. But if you want God to give you what you expect out of life, what you deserve, and what he wants you to ask for, you can’t halfway believe in his power. You have to have complete and total faith that God has got you and that what he has for you is yours and yours alone.

So I say today is my day this morning and that this year is my year, totally believing in God’s power and having faith in his plan for me. However, I also say that with the knowledge that I can’t just expect that everything that is for me is going to just come to me with putting in the work to earn it.

I am working on a couple of projects, one being an ebook series that I will be releasing soon (really soon) and I can’t just expect outstanding results without putting in the work to get them. So today, for all of you out there who are still struggling with self-doubt and self-sabotage (ebook series on how to work past this coming soon) claim today to be your day, say it with conviction and complete faith. You have to start somewhere!

Jimmetta Carpenter

My Write 2 Be is…

CEO/Writer/Editor

Write 2 Be Media/Write 2 Be Magazine

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I’m Not Sitting Out This Quarter

February 6, 2014 jcladyluv

“Sometimes in life you have to play in pain.”

~Joel Osteen

I’ve learned (the hard way) that you can’t stop pressing forward for every scrape, every bruise, every hurt ankle. Yes you may slow down a bit but you have to keep moving or you will never get to where it is you are going. I hadn’t realized until recently that last year when I just stopped moving and gave up it was as if I was saying that I don’t want to play the game anymore and made myself a bench warmer.

I let all the pain I was feeling and the emotional heaviness stop me cold in my tracks. At the time I would’ve never admitted to myself that I was doing that but now I am ready to get back in there. I am ready to play this game whether I am hurt or not, whether I go along limping or skipping, whether I have to cry through the process or smile through it. One thing is for sure, I am not a bench warmer. I don’t enjoy watching as things happen right in front of me and even more so I hate when something is happening that I know I am supposed to be a part of and I’m not.

Even when you have those moments where you need to take a five minute rest and collect your thoughts, prepare your next move in your head first, you still have to have the mindset that this is just a break and not a complete stand still. Watching other people accomplish the things that you want to achieve is what happens when you take too long of a break in your journey. You have to keep moving, you have to press on and get off of the bench.

Don’t get me wrong, bench warmers are important. There is always a need for the second string players and they have their purpose but if you know that you are not one, if you know that you belong in that starting position, then don’t sit on that bench and watch while someone else takes the spot that is yours. Trust me, you will hate every second of seeing someone else live the life that should be yours. So if you are over there sitting on that bench and you know you are supposed to be starting, then now (not tomorrow, and not a week from now) is the time to take your position back. It was your position all along, claim it!

Jimmetta Carpenter

My Write 2 Be is…

CEO/Writer/Editor

Write 2 Be Media/Write 2 Be Magazine

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When the Focus Has Been Found

February 4, 2014 jcladyluv

I have in mind the plans for this year and what I wanted to get accomplished but my plans were somewhat generalized. I hadn’t been able to be more detailed in my plans and my goals and the focus was a bit off. Then I talked to Ms. L last night and we talked about things that had nothing to do with writing or our separate businesses, things that were personal. Eventually we did get to the topic of our business endeavors and I expressed my frustration to her because I knew the things I wanted to do and get done but I just didn’t have a concrete plan (or even a vague one) of how to go about accomplishing them.

Within a manner of thirty minutes (probably less) Ms. L helped me to develop a comprehensive plan of action to get the things I need done, more specific details on how to get the most out of those things, and a plan to promote those projects that I have to get accomplished. She even helped me to add some projects to the list which tie in really well with the other ideas and can do more for my business as a whole. She helped to focus my ideas and goals so that they weren’t so all over the place in my mind.

Ms. L is a godsend and I am so thankful that God sent me a friend like her, whose mind works similar to mine, whose bones in her body also are filled with creativity. I wrote a post about when you don’t have the right people around you it could essentially hinder your progress. However, having the right person or people around you, who have the same ideals and whose goals are not necessarily the same, but inadvertently linked with one another.

Ms. L was definitely someone sent into my life by God and she keeps me sane and she reminds me whenever I forget (and I forget a lot) that everything that I need to make my dreams a reality is already within me so long as I have the faith that it is there. Make sure that you know who is surrounding you but not only that, make sure that you don’t let their value in your life go to waste. God didn’t put them there in your life for nothing. He placed them there so they could be a vessel to use, so use them!

Jimmetta Carpenter

My Write 2 Be is…

CEO/Writer/Editor

Write 2 Be Media/Write 2 Be Magazine

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The Faith of a Child

February 3, 2014 jcladyluv

I remember when I was younger having such big dreams. They were dreams that honestly seemed impossible to everyone that I told them to but to me they seemed like a no brainer. You couldn’t have ever told me then that I wasn’t ever going to achieve those goals because I would’ve just told you that you were crazy for not believing in me and my talent and abilities.

As I got older and into my adulthood and life started to unfold differently than my original plan my dreams shifted, in some ways to include larger goals, and the words of those naysayers started to get inside my head. I started to think that I was wishing for too much and dreaming way too big. I started to think that maybe I should only strive for what seemed realistically possible. I guess along the way my big dreams were always still in the back of my mind but I managed to dull their shine by settling for the things that seemed somewhat achievable, the things that were safely within my reach.

I was watching Joel Osteen the other morning and he spoke about dreaming big and not being afraid to pray God-sized prayers for yourself because there is nothing so big that God can’t do. He reminded me that you get what you ask for, or in this case pray for, and that if all you ever do is pray the safe prayers and ask for the small and ordinary things, then that is what you’re going to get. He reminded me that I am not bothering God to ask for what I really want and that it is not selfish to go big rather than play it safe.

I was never one to want a mediocre life before and my dreams cannot become a reality if I only play things safe so why am I. Don’t get me wrong, I do pray, a lot, but I pray unselfish prayers and I pray things for my daughter, or for what would suffice for the moment to get me through a particular period of time. I suppose I somehow developed this idea that there were certain things that I shouldn’t ask God for, things that would sound selfish considering the misfortune of so many in this world, things that seemed too big to ask God for, things that I guess I didn’t want to believe were possible for me to have, which is funny because when I was younger I never believed that anything was impossible for me to have.

What Joel Osteen was saying about daring to ask God for the big things, the things that seem to be impossible, resonated with me. It took me back to that kid that wasn’t afraid to dream big and who wasn’t scared to pray for those things that everyone else thought I was crazy for even hoping would come true. I hadn’t realized that I was putting limitations on God and what he was able to do for me. More importantly, I was underestimating what God’s purpose for me was and not being bold enough to ask him for what he had already promised me was mine.

When you are seeking out the things you want most out of life, don’t walk in the safe zone like I have been doing. Walk in the faith zone and trust in what God has planned for you. If you have not, it is because you asked not. Dare to dream big and stop praying small. God is an awesome God who can do so many big things that he is just waiting for us to ask for.

Jimmetta Carpenter

My Write 2 Be is…

CEO/Writer/Editor

Write 2 Be Media/Write 2 Be Magazine

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